


half a snowflake

by phylocalist



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Gen, Kid Fic, Language Barrier, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, as in both viktor and yuuri are kids in this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-03
Updated: 2018-01-03
Packaged: 2019-02-27 17:27:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13253058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phylocalist/pseuds/phylocalist
Summary: Mari saw it.When Viktor was holding the cup, there was something on his pinky finger. It could’ve well been a stain from the chocolate or some paint that got onto his finger, but it had a too-specific shape that’s been burned into the back of her mind since a few months ago.Since Yuuri showed her his pinky.





	half a snowflake

**Author's Note:**

> originally written for yuri!! on yuletide, a yoi secret santa run by [@pickledbrows](http://twitter.com/pickledbrows) on twitter! thank you!! sadly this gift was never received, but giftee wanted kid!viktuuri and soulmate marks, so i tried to mash both of those and this came out. very loosely created au in which viktor already skates but yuuri hasn't started yet.

“Snowflake!” Yuuri shouts, beaming proud. He points to his pinky finger, though it’s covered by the glove. “Like this!”

Mari stops mid creating a snowball and perks up immediately. “What.” It’s not even a question, the way she says it; it’s a demand. She reaches her brother in two big strides and takes his extended hand on her own. She removes the glove.

There it is. Exactly how Yuuri said, there is a perfect mark in the shape of a snowflake on the pinky finger of his brother -- well, not exactly a _perfect_ snowflake; it’s only half of it. Mari knew her brother wasn’t a liar by any measure at all, but she never even thought that he could have a soulmate mark with how rare they were. The only other people Mari knew had had soulmate marks were her grandparents, and she hadn’t even gotten to know them.

Mari’s eyes grow with surprise, and then they sparkle. She ruffles Yuuri’s hair with her hand and then drops a kiss on his forehead. Yuuri giggles and covers his forehead with his hands: one gloved, one bare; the half a snowflake clearly visible against his skin. He’s smiling and blushing, partly from the cold.

_This is good fortune_ , Mari thinks. _You will bring us fortune._

 

*

 

It’s cold when they land in Tokyo, but Viktor is no stranger to the cold. He’s grown up around and in it, playing with the white clouds his breath forms in the environment at the same time he practiced figures on the ice. He plays with his condensing breath now, too, as he sits in the airport waiting room for their flight to Hasetsu, some town further away from the city that he and his coaches, Yakov and Lilia, will be staying in. He’s never been one for the countryside; his interests always took him to the bustling city streets filled with people walking in all directions and thousands of shop windows to look into. But it was a decision from his coach, and apparently they “ _all need a vacation after the effort of Nationals_ ”, so they’re here now.

Yakov taps lightly on Viktor’s thigh and stands up.

“Let’s go, the flight’s boarding.” He doesn’t even wait for Viktor to stand up and follow, he just goes.

Viktor is no stranger to this, either. He just rolls his eyes and hops down from the uncomfortable airport chair, following Yakov dutifully. He’d already tried escaping once: not walking behind Yakov and wandering off right before a flight, just so Yakov could panic when he didn’t find Viktor behind him. It hadn’t ended well and Viktor had never tried it again.

The flight is short and Viktor doesn’t even get the chance to nap. He just presses play in his mp3 player and his mind loses itself in the music; he thinks about choreographies and skating and jumps he knows he still shouldn’t be doing but wants to do anyway. Time passes by so quickly like this, that it feels like he blinks only once and suddenly he’s unboarding.

They take a taxi to whatever place they’re going to. Viktor doesn’t care, because now all he can think and talk about is skating. Yakov listens; maybe not as intently as he should, but he listens anyway. He nods at appropriate times and tells Viktor they’ll think about adding that one move to one of his routines for next season. It would sound dismissive to anyone’s ears, but Viktor knows. The next time they’re practicing his routines and upgrading them, Yakov will bring up this conversation and Viktor will beam and nod, _yes, yes, let’s add that_ , and Yakov’s eyes will shine with pride. Viktor never feels more like a star than in those moments.

Viktor finally notices the world around him again when he’s being shaken by one shoulder. He looks up at Lilia, who’s standing next to him with both her shoes in one hand. Viktor scrunches up his nose. Why is she even taking off her shoes? Are her feet smelly? He looks for Yakov with his eyes, to ask what is his wife doing, and he notices Yakov has actually taken his shoes off too and is now wearing a pair of unfamiliar slippers. Lilia’s eyes harden and she nudges Viktor’s legs with one of her now-slipper-covered feet.

While the fear that Yakov had instilled in him has almost completely disappeared, the same cannot be said for Lilia. Viktor hurries to take off his boots, hastily pushes them aside next to other shoes he sees on the entrance, and takes a pair of slippers similar to the ones his coaches are wearing. Once he’s done, he steps next to Lilia on the wooden floor. He beams up at her. She nods curtly at him, so Viktor counts it as a win.

Yakov is talking with some middle aged woman, and they’re both bowing a lot. Viktor wonders, once again, why. He doesn’t have much time to think about it before Yakov is coming back to his and Lilia’s side, putting his hands over Viktor’s shoulders and then sighing as he kneels down to unbutton Viktor’s heavy winter coat. Viktor stops himself from telling his coach that he can unbutton his coat on his own.

Once his coat is unbuttoned and off of him, Yakov hands it and both of his and Lilia’s coats to another attendant at this place. She’s young, probably a teenager, but her hair’s cut short and held back with a red bandana over her hairline, her hair two different shades of brown and blonde. She also has ear piercings: three in each ear.

Viktor is _amazed_ ; his whole world feels like it just expanded tenfold.

His eyes involuntarily follow the teenager as she heads into the interior of the place they’re at and Viktor wishes he could follow her for real, smile and ask a million questions, eyes alight. He is instead dragged by Yakov into a completely different direction than the teenager went. He pouts, but walks obediently behind his coach.

As they walk through the place, Viktor’s hand brushes against Yakov’s at least once. It’s awkward for him, for a moment, but Yakov just keeps walking like nothing happened. He was never one to hold Viktor’s hand, anyway; not even in crowded places, situations in which Yakov said it would help Viktor’s disastrous sense of direction if he had to learn it on his own -- needless to say, his sense of direction had not improved one bit.

Actually, he is probably going to get lost in this place, sooner rather than later. He is _not_ looking forward to it.

  
*

 

Viktor gets lost approximately two nights in.

He wanders off into the kitchen after absentmindedly walking the place for about 20 minutes. All of this “vacation” thing didn’t really sit well with him; he ended up too restless without being able to work out all of his energy through practice, so he wanders around more often than not. Surprisingly, there is no one in the kitchen when he walks in.

He immediately walks further in, curiosity and the hope of a distraction getting the better of him. He inspects the stacks of pots and plates, and is cautiously peering into one of the cupboards when a voice startles him.

“Ah!”

Viktor whirls around, his hair following him on the spiral. There is a boy on the doorway, a small stack of plates in his hands. Viktor thinks he’s Japanese, maybe staff -- though, would he be working at such a young age? The boy looks younger than him.

“Sorry,” Viktor says, in the best English he can muster. “I got lost.” It isn’t even a lie.

The boy gets visibly flustered. Viktor fears for the stack of plates on his hands.

“Eh… uh…” He stutters. The boy seems to think for a while, until he very cautiously asks, ”guest?”

_Oh. He doesn’t know English_ , Viktor thinks. He would’ve felt relieved that he wasn’t the only one without a full grasp of English, if it weren’t for the fact now he knows they have no way to communicate. He guesses the boy’s native language is Japanese from his accent.

Still, he’s the only person close to his age that he’s encountered so far, so he’s very excited.

Viktor nods enthusiastically. “Yes. Guest!”

“Oh!” The boy lights up, then hurries over to the kitchen sink and hops into a stool so he can place the stack of plates onto the sink. He turns around and hurriedly wipes his hands on the apron he’s wearing. He extends one to Viktor, unsure. “Welcome!”

Viktor immediately takes the outstretched hand on both of his, moves them up and down with more enthusiasm than necessary. “Thank you! I’m Viktor!” He points at himself as he says his name.

The boy lets go of his hand and points at himself now. “Yuuri!”

Viktor chuckles. That wouldn’t be hard to remember at all. Yuri is a common name back in Russia too.

“Yuri!” Viktor repeats.

Yuuri makes a face and shakes his head. “ _Ie, ie_. Y _uu_ ri,” he repeats, putting an emphasis on the _u_ sound.

Viktor’s eyebrows raise up and he smiles. “Yuuri,” he says, putting care on the way he pronounces the _u_ s.

“ _Hai!_ ” Yuuri says, smiling brightly, then shakes his head and blushes. “Yes.”  


*

 

The next time Viktor meets Yuuri, he’s leaving the onsen (which is how the place they’re staying in is called, he’d learned recently) with Yakov and Lilia. He’s all bundled up and ready to go spend a day out in the snowy Japanese town, when a shadow of dark hair catches his eye.

He turns around quickly and, yeah, Yuuri is there. He is squatting in the snow-covered garden attached to the onsen, playing with the snow that’s piled up on the ground. What’s more, the person Viktor had seen before, with the blonde-and-brown hair and the piercings, is squatting right there next to him. It seems like they’re talking.

Viktor pulls on the coat of Yakov forcefully, causing him to stop.

“Yakov!” Viktor calls. “Can I stay and play?” He makes the best puppy eyes he possibly can. They never work on Lilia, but they surprisingly do on Yakov.

Yakov looks at him with a frown, then up behind him. He sees the two children playing together and heaves out a sigh. Silently, he pats Viktor on the head and nods. Viktor beams.

“Thank youuuu!” He hugs Yakov by the legs for a couple of seconds and runs off.

He stops short of stumbling onto Yuuri’s back. Instead, he taps him on the shoulder and waves his hand at him with way too much enthusiasm when Yuuri turns back.

“Hi, Yuuri! Can I play with you?” Viktor says, in his accented english.

Yuuri looks back to the teenager behind him, panicked. He looks flustered, blushing, just like he did when they first met. The teenager leans closer to Yuuri and tells him something in what sounds like japanese to Viktor’s ear. Yuuri blushes even deeper. Viktor understands nothing and tries to divert the attention back to himself.

“Yuuri! Play! Snow!” He keeps it to short words this time, hoping that Yuuri will understand more easily.

Yuuri looks up at Viktor this time. His eyes are shining and he’s smiling shyly. Viktor thinks it’s cute.

“ _Hai_ ,” Yuuri says. “Yes! Play!” He scoots to the side a bit, giving Viktor access to the pile of snow he’s collected and that he’s making snowballs out of.

Viktor happily complies, and plops himself down in front of it, making snowballs as well.

“What’s your name?” Someone who is definitely not Yuuri asks. Viktor looks up and the teenager is looking at him.

Her english is very accented, but she obviously knows and understands more than Yuuri does, so Viktor beams. He’s about to answer, when Yuuri interrupts him.

“Ah! Mari-neesan, _Viktoru_ -kun desu.”

“ _Naruhodo_ ,” the girl says, with a somewhat amused grin. She turns back to him. “So you’re _Viktoru_?”

“Yes,” Viktor nods. “My name is Viktor,” he says, putting a little emphasis on the way his name should be pronounced. He doesn’t wanna be rude and he doesn’t really care that they pronounce his name that way, anyway. “And you…?” Viktor trails off, recalling how Yuuri had addressed her a moment ago. “Mari-neesan?”

“You can just call me Mari,” she replies with a shrug and goes back to making snowballs.

All three of them end up amassing a big pile of snowballs and they realize they don’t really have anything to do with them. After having a good laugh about it, they decide to have a snowball fight. Viktor and Yuuri form a team against Mari. They both still get utterly crushed by her and her amazing strength. They all end up exhausted in the best way possible and Mari suggests they go back in for a cup of hot chocolate, to which both Viktor and Yuuri agree enthusiastically.

Once inside, they sit down on a cozy little room that contains something Yuuri calls a _kotatsu_. He also very excitedly asks Viktor to put his legs under it and Viktor, while a bit wary, complies. He discovers the magic of kotatsus that day and thinks about asking Yakov for one once they’re back in Russia.

Mari comes back with the hot chocolates when they’re settled down, warm under the kotatsu’s heat. Viktor feels floaty with contentedness. He doesn’t think he’s ever been this relaxed before. He wraps his hands around the warm mug, letting it unfreeze his hands, and then takes a sip. It’s delicious and it spreads across all of his body. He’s drinking another big sip before he can even realize. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Mari and Yuuri smiling.

They spend a while there, sitting under the kotatsu and drinking hot chocolate, without talking much at all. While Mari knows english, and Viktor knows enough to just barely communicate, it still feels like there’s a language barrier between him and her. And the person Viktor wants to talk more than anything, Yuuri, barely knows any english.

So Viktor just shuts up -- a rarity for him -- and enjoys the moment.

It feels like only a moment has passed and Viktor is suddenly blinking his eyes open, being softly shaken by a pair of small hands. Yuuri is still sitting across from him under the kotatsu, but he’s wrong somehow. That’s when Viktor realizes his head is resting sideways on top of the kotatsu.

Yuuri is smiling warmly, a soft blush tainting his cheeks. “Uhm. You. Sleep.”

Viktor’s brain, muddled with sleep, struggles to catch up. Yuuri’s broken english doesn’t make sense for a few seconds, and then Viktor’s head snaps up so fast he makes himself dizzy. He immediately lets it drop down again. Yuuri looks alarmed.

“Sorry,” he murmurs and closes his eyes again, trying to calm down the dizziness.

Yuuri lets out a little chuckle and then Viktor feels a hand run through his hair. He feels like he’s gonna melt into the table. He loves getting his hair pet and caressed, but nobody ever does it for him. The only times anyone takes care of his hair is when Lilia ties it up for competitions, but it never feels warm like this. It’s never this delicate.

“ _Kirei_ ,” he hears Yuuri’s voice faintly whisper. Curious, he opens his eyes, to find Yuuri’s eyes following his own hand down Viktor’s shoulders over his hair. Yuuri notices his stare and blushes, “ _Viktoru-kun no kami ga suki._ ”

Viktor understands exactly one word of that sentence and it’s his name. He straightens up quickly and looks at Yuuri expectantly. “What?”

“Oh, uhm.” Yuuri looks like a deer caught in headlights, his eyes darting all over the room except for in front of him, where Viktor is. “Hair…” he trails off, taking one of his fingers up to his mouth to bite down on his nail. “ _Suki_ , _suki_ … oh!” He looks up, triumphant. “Like! Hair, like!”

“Oh!” Viktor backs up a bit, holding one of the long strands of hair that fall over his shoulder, extending it to Yuuri. “My hair? You like?” He asks.

Yuuri’s hand seems to creep towards Viktor’s extended hand with his own hair in it, but he pulls it back with a blush. “Yes. _Viktoru_ -kun hair. Like.”

Viktor suddenly blushes. He doesn’t even know why because he’s lived all his life getting compliments on his hair, over how long it is, how pretty the color is, or how well-kept it is. He’s gotten used to smiling and nodding, saying “thank you” politely. Now though, he feels warmth spread over his cheeks up to the tip of his ears.

He doesn’t know what to do, so he just slumps over, his hands covering his face and his hair shielding him from Yuuri’s view.

“Um? _Viktoru_ -kun okay?” Yuuri asks, clearly worried.

Viktor takes a deep breath and straightens back up, smiling at Yuuri and trying to not pay attention to the blush that’s still warming up his face.

“Yes. I am okay.”

Yuuri smiles back at him, clearly relieved.

It’s the most beautiful smile he’s ever seen.  


*

 

Mari saw it.

When Viktor was holding the cup, there was something on his pinky finger. It could’ve well been a stain from the chocolate or some paint that got onto his finger, but it had a too-specific shape that’s been burned into the back of her mind since a few months ago.

Since Yuuri showed her his pinky.

It stays on the forefront on her mind for the next few days after that. She keeps getting distracted over the possibility. Over the sheer madness that it’d be if it were true.

Viktor has to leave before she can ever sit down for a chat with him. She sees him, though, outside with her brother and inside, too, running around doing chores. Mari knows doing chores is no fun, she didn’t like them either when she was a kid, but they do it together and laugh so often that she wonders if they’re even doing them right. She doesn’t even know _how_ they’re laughing together if they can’t communicate, but they make it work somehow.

Yuuri changes slightly when he’s around Viktor. He’s brighter, somehow. Smiles more easily and laughs more heartily. He can’t use japanese and has a very limited vocabulary of english, so he has to use touch instead, something he’s never been too comfortable with. It doesn’t seem like it pains him, though, to do it with Viktor; he grabs Viktor’s hand and leads him around, touches him on the shoulder often. Mari even saw him caressing his hair once.

They learn to talk in gestures and looks, laughter and snow.

Yu-topia Akatsuki feels warmer when they’re around.

Viktor leaves on a warm winter day. The sun is shining outside and the snow is slowly melting. Yakov, the man who he came with, is buttoning up his coat on the entrance of Yu-topia and Viktor keeps moving, restless, looking around. Mari hears Yakov chastise him, so Viktor stops moving but starts pouting. When Yakov finishes and walks towards her mom on the back, she steps closer to the kid.

She kneels down in front of him. Viktor looks at her with a toothy smile and bright eyes. She grins back.

“ _Viktoru_ -kun, can I see your hands?” She asks, skipping the niceties. She tries her best to make it understandable to the kid.

Viktor frowns, clearly confused, but extends both of his hands to her, palm up. He’s not wearing gloves yet. She takes them with a small breathe in, weirdly anxious. It’s not even her future that’s at stake here, but it might as well be.

She turns Viktor’s hands one way and another, until she sees it. Clear as day.

A birthmark on Viktor’s pinky. Half a snowflake.

The other half of a set.

A surprised laugh is ripped out of her. Viktor looks even more confused, so Mari lets go of his hands and pulls him forward by the shoulders to give him a kiss on the forehead, like she gives to Yuuri from time to time.

“Thank you. Please come back” she tells Viktor, stands up and walks back.

On her way to her mother’s side, she spots a tiny figure hidden in one of the corridors. She rolls her eyes, and walks towards Yuuri, kneeling next to him.

“It’s okay. You can go say goodbye,” she tells him as she pets his head. There’s big fat tears accumulating in his eyes, and she can hear him sniffing. He had always been an ugly crier.

Yuuri looks at her, looking for approval again. Mari nods. He immediately runs to Viktor’s side, hugging him without a warning. Even from this distance she can hear him sob into Viktor’s shoulder, probably ruining the pretty coat with all of his snot. Mari laughs silently.

“ _Viktoru_ -kun,” Yuuri says, finally letting go of Viktor. He wipes at his eyes and nose, and looks up to Viktor with hope in his eyes. “Come back?”

“Yuuri.” Viktor looks like he could cry too at any moment. He nods, biting his lip. “Yes. Come back.”

Yuuri smiles, and throws himself to Viktor for another hug. They separate after a few seconds, but Viktor tugs at Yuuri’s shirt when he’s about to turn around and leave.

“Yuuri.” Viktor says. He looks like he’s looking for something. “Yuuri _suki_.”

Mari can’t help the bout of laughter that comes out of her. She doubles over, arm over her stomach, and laughs. Where had he even _learnt_ that?

“Oh, my,” her mother says next to her. When Mari turns to look at her, she’s got a hand over her cheek and an amused expression on her face. Yakov, next to her, looks exhausted.

Mari’s attention is suddenly snatched when Yuuri walks over to her and their mom, standing next to her with the reddest face she’s ever seen him in. He’s fidgeting, clearly embarrassed, looking down at the floor.

“He confessed and you’re not even gonna give him a reply?” She teases.

“Mari-neesan!” Yuuri shouts, looking even more embarrassed if possible. Mari laughs again.

They all say goodbye to the Feltsmans, who leave with the promise of coming back. Yuuri looks sad immediately after, but Mari has a plan. It’s not even a plan she constructed, it’s a plan that fate had already set out for the both of them, and she’s just gonna carry it along.

She will tell her mom, about the mark on Viktor’s finger, and about the second set of soulmates their family has ever encountered.

Their life will change.

_Fortune. You will bring us fortune_ , Mari thinks, and she ruffles Yuuri’s hair.

**Author's Note:**

> i may or may not write a continuation to this later on. for now, come talk to me about gay ice skaters on [twitter](http://twitter.com/phylocalist) pls


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